When I first wrote the manuscript for Tom Candiotti: A Life of Knuckleballs, I had over 600,000 words, which, of course, made it unpublishable.

So, my publisher, McFarland & Co., requested me to cut the manuscript down, and because of that, many stories did not make the cut.

Over the next little while, I will be posting some of the original content that didn’t make it to the book. I call this, “Missed the Cut.”

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This one is from Tom Candiotti’s first month in the majors, with the stories about Pete Vuckovich and the Milwaukee veterans not making it into the book:

The Brewers were still in contention even with the struggles of veteran Don Sutton—who despite pitching nine shutout innings against California on August 24th, was 0-5 with a 6.49 ERA in his last seven starts.

Even though the veteran wasn’t getting it done, the rookies certainly were, up to that point. Including Candiotti, the Brewers had four rookie pitchers who each played a big role in the team’s success. The quartet had 19 wins and 10 saves, led by reliever Tom Tellmann (nine wins, eight saves), Chuck Porter (six wins), Bob Gibson (two wins, two saves), and of course, Candiotti (two complete-game wins in two starts).

As it turned out, Milwaukee wouldn’t win another game in which Tellmann, Porter, and Gibson appeared until the final three days of the season. Tellmann would pitch well down the stretch (2.31 ERA) but the Brewers would go 0-9 in his final nine appearances of the season. They would be 0-4 in Gibson’s appearances—he was 0-2—until he defeated Detroit 6-2 in a meaningless start on the final weekend. As for Porter, he would be 0-4 with a 7.16 ERA—the Brewers would lose all six of his starts—before beating the Tigers 7-4 on the final day of the season.

As for Vuckovich, he wouldn’t make a difference when he made his long-awaited season debut on August 31st. The reigning Cy Young winner would last only 14.2 innings in three starts, going 0-2 with a 4.91 ERA. Meanwhile, in a complete reversal of Sutton’s September 1982 performance, the veteran right-hander would be 1-3 with a 3.80 ERA in his final six starts of 1983.

As Washington Post writer Thomas Boswell noted in late August, “The core of the Brewers’ suspect rotation—Sutton, Mike Caldwell and Bob McClure—has a combined 25-26 record and an ERA over 4.40. When you have to give 27 starts in the pennant race to Chuck Porter, Tom Candiotti, Bob Gibson, Jerry Augustine and Rick Waits, you’re in line for baseball sympathy” (Thomas Boswell, “Mighty Brewers Have Gone From Muscle to Hustle Team,” Washington Post, August 22, 1983).

Though Vuckovich would go winless in 1983, Candiotti, to this day, marvels at the clubhouse presence he exhibited that season. “Vuckovich, like the veteran players, made sure the rookies were paying attention to what was going on,” says Candy. “I’d be on the bench. He’d walk by in the ninth inning and say, ‘What did this batter do in his second at-bat?’ So I’d have to recall the pitch count and things like that. He kept me in the game, kept me watching all the time. That’s how baseball was back then. The veterans kept the young players in the game. All those guys made sure the rookies were paying attention and knew what was going on. And boy, I tell ya, if Pete was asking you a question, you’d better get it right!”

Candiotti also credits Vuckovich with teaching him a lot about pitching, especially pitching around hitters. “He taught me an awful lot, being able to pick the outs you wanna get. I was never taught to walk guys intentionally, like intentionally ‘unintentionally.’ But he sat down with me and went through things with me that I never knew.” For instance, many times a pitcher would walk a hitter apparently unintentionally, when actually it was almost intentional. If, say, there was a runner on second base and a tough hitter up, the pitcher wouldn’t actually give him an intentional pass, but would pitch carefully to him. If the pitcher got the batter out to chase pitches out of the strike zone, that was great. If he walked the hitter, that was fine too—his main goal was to basically not give the batter anything to hit. Candiotti, who never liked to walk hitters, learned to appreciate such a pitching strategy. He was grateful for having Vuckovich as a mentor in teaching him how to pitch in the majors.

“He wore me out, though,” Candiotti laughs. “I had to buy him this and that. This was kind of like my ‘welcome’ to the big leagues. Of course, that Brewers team was a veteran club. [Catcher] Bill Schroeder and I were two of the few rookies that year, until the September call-ups came up to Milwaukee. For a while there, Pete really wore us out. I know he wore me out. He wouldn’t let me in the trainer’s room initially. I was tested as a rookie. But once I passed the test, he was awesome. He was a great teammate to be around.” And how did Candiotti pass the test?

“Well, what happened was I was making my first major-league start. I went into the trainer’s room and Vuckovich was there. He goes, ‘What are you doing here, rookie?’

“I go, ‘I’m just gonna get some heat.’

“Pete says, ‘Get the hell outta here, rookie.’”

Candiotti didn’t let Vuckovich’s abuse bother him. He left the room, pitched Milwaukee into first place, and kept his distance from the veteran pitcher. Soon enough, Vuckovich approached the rookie to welcome him. “A few days later,” Candiotti says, “he comes up to me and goes, ‘You’re doing pretty well. You can come into the trainer’s room now.’ So after that, he was great. But if I’d fought him on it, he would’ve made my life miserable that rookie season.”

He still laughs at how Vuckovich walked 102 batters with 105 strikeouts during the 1982 season and still won the AL Cy Young Award*. While Vuckovich was second in the league in wins—finishing 18-6 with a 3.34 ERA—he was also second in bases on balls. “Now, I think back and I wonder—and I’d joke about it with him—‘How did you win the Cy Young with those numbers?’” Candiotti says with a grin. “He had over a hundred walks! I’d joke about it with Pete, like, ‘That’s one of the strangest things how you won that award!’”

Another veteran who helped Candiotti along that first season was catcher Ted Simmons, who’d assign him homework. “Ted once got me to do a report about the ball-strike counts on which most baserunners ran,” he says. “You know, which counts runners go the most. Or he’d quiz me on pitch selections during a game. It was great. And of course, he called a knuckleball for the first big-league pitch I ever threw. He knew how to help me out as a young player. It was a huge thing for me.”

*One could make the argument that Toronto’s Dave Stieb was robbed of the Cy Young in 1982. Vuckovich, who made 30 starts, pitched 223.2 innings with nine complete games, including one shutout. Stieb, meanwhile, started 38 games, completed 19 of them, tossed five shutouts, and threw 288.1 innings. He led the AL in innings, complete games, and shutouts, and was tied for third in games started. He was 17-14 with a 3.25 ERA, walking 75 and fanning 141.

A lot of people around us are mean. Inconsiderate. Rude. They’re all around us. Since they are like that, well, then it’s fair game that I criticize them. Right here, right now.

Anyway, the other day (it was Wednesday), I was dropped off near the school where I work. I started walking toward the building, and I saw a colleague walking away from the building toward me. She might have been on her way to grab a coffee or some food. I don’t know.

Anyway, I said “Hello,” but she just walked past me without a word. And yes, she saw me.

Now, being an instructor, I don’t work with my fellow teachers, but since we do work in the same school and we do teach some of the same students, it’s professional courtesy to greet each other. I mean, that’s a colleague, regardless of whether or not we interact during the actual work times. (We don’t, since we would be in class teaching, obviously.)

Since I have nothing to hide, I’ll just call this person by her initials, C.Z. I would guess her actions are what people call “passive aggressive”? Look, if I had unknowingly offended her in the past, then talk to me about it. But this type of treatment tells me just the type of person she is. No, she’s not shy. In between classes when I’m in my classroom prepping, I can often hear her yapping away with others. I don’t join in during those instances because I’m not one who likes to engage in gossip or meaningless chit-chat – and I’m not part of that particular clique. (So, no, she’s not shy, and nor is she a child or teenager. But perhaps her behaviour suggests that she belongs to high school still? Or kindergarten? It’s certainly high-schoolish behaviour.)

But to ignore me when I said “Hello”? That’s not even the first time. The other times were in the school, where I might have said “Hi” and C.Z. just walked past me with her head down. Or head buried in her phone. But what can I say? I’ve not knowingly done anything to her. I’ve not even interacted with this person. I mean, I don’t let such people bother me. But I won’t say nothing about it right here, on this blog, either. Of course, it would be easy to just walk up to her when there are others around and say, “Hey, by the way, you ignored me earlier….” I don’t embarrass people like that, though. At the same time, if someone’s clearly made the point to ignore me, I’m not going to go out of my way to approach that person and say, “Hey, I don’t know if we got off on the wrong foot, but I just wanted to talk to you about…”

Nothing more to say, but since I use this blog/website to discuss rude people, I will have to mention this one too. Perhaps that’s how people in her culture act. I don’t know. All I will say is… gutless.

I have another story about an “A.J.,” from a different school where I used to work, but that’s for another time.

A lot of people around us are mean. Inconsiderate. Rude. They’re all around us. Since they are like that, well, then it’s fair game that I criticize them. Starting now – right here and right now.

So, the other day (last Sunday at 7 p.m., in fact… according to the time stamp on the photo that I took), I visited the local McDonald’s. Not wanting to endure receiving poor service and/or dealing with unfriendly cashiers yet again (my experience has often been cashiers not smiling and/or not even bothering to greet the customer), I used the mobile app to order the meal and requested McDonald’s “table service.” It’s simple. You just enter the table #, and they’re supposed to bring it to your table.

Soon after I ordered through the app, a McDonald’s employee – a young lady – brought a tray out with items that looked like what I had ordered. She walked right past my table and took it to another table where two guys were seated. She said to them in a very cheerful voice, “Did you guys order this?”

I waved at her and said, “I did.” She brought the tray over and placed it at my table, and left without a word. No “Can I get you anything else?” or “Is that everything?” No, she put the tray down and walked away WITHOUT A WORD. And no, she didn’t re-join the kitchen or the counter, or wherever she was supposed to go. She went BACK to that table with the two guys and said something to them before leaving.

I was having my meal, sipping on the hot tea, and I would say about 25 minutes later, that same young lady came back into the customer area. She re-joined that same table and sat down with the two guys. Apparently, she was off-duty at that point, and they were discussing college classes, etc., and in their conversation they were – including she – using swear words. I was still in the middle of my hot tea, and that’s why I was still there. And since the area was pretty empty – but not without customers (such as myself) – I could hear their conversation. It wasn’t that I wanted to.

Her actions were highly unprofessional. I have a contact at the head office, so I discussed this incident with that person. I didn’t mention the swear words, though. I stuck to the lack of service with this so-called “table service.” What that lady does in her free time – swearing at her place of work – is none of my business. But being unprofessional while still on duty… when I’m the customer… well, it’s definitely my business. The tables have numbers on there, and I input my table number, yet this McDonald’s employee was unprofessional in carrying the tray to where her friends were sitting – sure, cater to your friends first, right? – instead of doing her job. The worst part was this dropping off the tray and not saying a word to me while returning to her friends. Unprofessional. Gutless.

In Don’t Blame the Knuckleballer! Baseball Legends, Myths, and Stories, K.P. Wee looks at more than 30 obscure and forgotten tales told by ballplayers, coaches, and broadcasters throughout baseball history – and repeated by historians and bloggers – while mixing in a knuckleballing theme. For each tale, Wee asks, “Did this really happen?” or “Did they blame the right person?”

Among the tales:

* Did Joe Niekro really strike out the first five batters of a game in the very first inning?

* Did Phil Niekro really make Floyd Robinson silly on a strikeout?

* Did “Sunday Teddy” Lyons really pitch only on Sundays?

* How did Tom Candiotti “botch” the Jeff Kent fantasy baseball story?

* Did Pedro Martinez actually forget the details of his first big-league start and blame the wrong guy?

* Did you know that Ted Williams had to face a knuckleballer on the next-to-last day of his historic 1941 season?

* Was Mark Grace really on deck when Glenallen Hill hit his mammoth home run at Wrigley?

Then, in 2017, there was also Don’t Blame the Knuckleballer II, again available on Amazon.

* Who was the last starting pitcher ever in the majors to pitch only two innings in a game – and leave because of an injury – and then receive credit for an “injury win”?

* Which knuckleballer once threw a shutout to beat Greg Maddux?

* Which knuckleballer was the second pitcher ever in big-league history to have two consecutive starts of eight-plus innings and zero runs to begin his postseason career?

* Which knuckleballer was said to have had “one of the most courageous pitching performances” of the 1939 major-league season – and why?

* Which future Hall of Famer who was teammates with Bobby Witt made his pitching debut with his new club by entering in relief in a bases-loaded situation?

In Don’t Blame the KnuckleballerII, I look at more than 20 additional obscure and forgotten tales told by ballplayers, coaches, and broadcasters throughout baseball history – and repeated by fans, historians, and bloggers – while mixing in a knuckleballing theme.

Thank you for picking up a copy of each book – I really appreciate your support!

I’m not one who toots his own horn. I rarely do that. But, in the era of social media and getting your name out there, I suppose it’s become a necessity to do so. After all, if you’ve written a book, you want people to know about it — and these days, it’s essential to use social media and the Internet to promote your works.

I’m still blown away to see people buying a copy here and there. I mean, I’ve always thought that Candiotti didn’t get the accolades that he deserved in his career. So, to have a book about him published — albeit it a little too late, in my opinion, as it came out 15 years after his retirement — is an amazing thing.

It wasn’t an easy process, to be sure. Having a book published isn’t a simple matter of the writing part. It’s also listening to what the publisher wants. There were many stories that Candiotti told me which I originally included in the manuscript, but the publisher has a word limit and all that, and wanted a lot of those stories excluded in the book.

Perhaps some day I will post those stories that didn’t make it into the book on this website. We shall see.

But it’s been nearly five years since the book came out. Time to pat myself on the back.